The methods known to this day for producing synthetic hydrocarbons from carbonaceous materials are applied in large capacity installations, for example having production capacities of 10,000 or 20,000 barrels of hydrocarbons a day.
Such units have to be set up close to a very large source of carbonaceous materials, or have to be supplied from many smaller sources distributed over a large territory.
There are not many large sources. Moreover, when the supply is accomplished from many sources distributed over a large territory, certain sources are necessarily remote. Supplying the installation for producing synthetic hydrocarbons then requires many transports, which are costly in energy.